


And The World Will Be Kind

by Merlin_OhMy



Series: You Said We'll Be Fine [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Supernatural
Genre: Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Bucky Barnes Has PTSD, Bucky Barnes Recovering, M/M, Married Life, Mentions Of The Winchester Brothers - Freeform, Post-Civil War (Marvel), Saving People Hunting Things, Secret Identity, keeping secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 14:11:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11442522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merlin_OhMy/pseuds/Merlin_OhMy
Summary: You said, "We'll be fine,""We'll make a living and the world will be kind"And you said, "We'll be free,""We'll make some money and you'll sleep beside me"But oh man, oh man, man, oh manWhat are we doing?-White Picket Fence, Flannel GraphThe boys try to settle into civilian life. Bucky struggles to find a new purpose and discovers hunting monsters is within his wheelhouse.





	And The World Will Be Kind

After the shit storm of the Avengers' conflict, Steve retired from the team. Tony made it very clear either the shield or Bucky. And Steve chose Bucky without a shadow of a doubt. Steve knew he'd be the man who'd walk over 5,000 miles of hot coals for his soul mate.

He'd lost too much to be afraid of letting himself love and chose selfishly for once. Steve sure missed Tony and the team but not enough to pick the shield back up.

Rogers decided to go back to school and earned his art education certificate. Steve became Dr. Steven Rogers thriving in his teaching position at a local university. He specializes in expressions of wartime and depression era art.

Art always spoke to his soul, and art became the medium he could begin to heal. Particular pieces are woven into his very being repairing the holes in his heart.

Steve especially loved the photograph of the Migrant Mother. How Florence Thompson's struggle reminded him of his own mother, mothers always giving of themselves even when they had nothing to offer. He supposes Florence Thompson and Sarah Rogers could've been best of friends.

When he thought of his mother, Steve realized she would've wanted more for him. So he decided to give married life a try, leaving his shield and boots behind.

 

Rogers adapted to an apple pie life but Bucky, on the other hand, struggled. Sam (Wilson, Marvel) reassured Bucky all his feelings were normal.

 

But that didn't make him feel any better.

 

He loves Steve so much.

 

Being married to his best friend has been a dream since 1935.

 

But damn, Bucky sticks out like a sore thumb, clearly he doesn't belong in civilian life. Every noise makes him jumpy and his body tenses like he's in the middle of a war zone. His anxiety is a monster that swallows his entire focus in darkness and depression. The medicine helps, therapy too, but there is just something missing from Bucky's life. Something he can't explain. 

 

Their beautiful farmhouse residing in Alexandria, Virginia is close enough to DC for Steve to commute. Yet Bucky doesn't feel like he's suffocating. It's a nice neighborhood too. Everyone is very respectful and doesn't ask too many questions.

Their close community offers Bucky a safe place when he's disassociated from himself. Bucky can even walk to the market for groceries, and the entire staff knows him by name.

 

What a nice change of pace for Steve. 

 

Bucky supposes the neighborhood is alright, but he doesn't belong.

 

But he really tries for Steve's sake.

 

Plus, the neighbors all really like Steve and look out for him.

 

Bucky tried to go back to school but found it too overwhelming. Most civilian jobs working with the public weren't for him. He prefers being unknown, away from public eyes. Nothing felt right and made his heart break even more.

He spends most of his time alone at home when he isn't attending group, therapy, or tending to daily tasks.  

 

But it's an unexpected place where he finds refuge from his struggling. It's the library where Barnes begins to find himself. The former soldier found himself elbows deep in books.

 

He loves to read so much!

 

Strangely, Bucky never thought he would love to read.

 

Before he couldn't be still long enough, always needing to tinker with his hands.

 

He stopped attending school when he was in the eighth grade and began to work in a storefront.

 

Barnes stocked groceries for Mr. Myers, swept the floor and tended to the shop.

 

He never received a formal education, but Buck continued to teach himself out of books.

 

Barnes sure could add though, math came easily.

 

Hydra changed everything though.

 

They educated him, his brain enhanced by the serum and their training. Their education made the soldier shudder at the mere thought.  The ways Hydra manipulated, twisted his entire brain function.

 

 They used electric shock to make Barnes compliant to their twisted wishes. Fuck, they made him believe he was doing good.

  
The solider would never look at his calloused hands the same way again. His hands were a means of being able to work. Once they brought him pride, he worked so hard to provide a good life for his lover.  

Long hours at the docks, working odd jobs, and even giving hand jobs in back alleys of Brooklyn. Barnes would do anything for an extra dollar if it meant Steve would survive his chronic bouts of illnesses.

 

Barnes' hands once nurtured goodness, now took life and brought death.

 

It was books that brought him back to the land of the living, instead of stuck in his past. Like Steve and his art, Bucky read and found healing. Healing in a different sense, he found a new purpose in his books. But his soul was still broken, and he liked to remember the brokenness.

He didn't want to forget how he mended himself back together into something better than the Winter Solider. But there is red in his ledger, and he vows to make it right.

 

Bucky had his head in books of supernatural myth for as long as he can remember. As a kid, he was drawn to science fiction. It was

Homer's Oddessy that caused him to pick up mythology again. Naturally, after working with Hydra, he'd seen some crazy ass shit. It really wasn't heard to believe in monsters going bump in the night after asshole with a red skull made him into a ghost story.

 

Ghosts.....demons......werewolves......vamps

 

Man, that makes fucking sense.

 

But Hydra?

 

Nah.

 

He has no explanation for why those fuckers are so evil.

 

The first time he heard about hunting something spoke to him. The appeal of doing something good with his particular skill set made his heart jump with excitement.

So he began to collect the necessary weapon arsenal and library. His first case involved a nest of vamps within a ninety-mile radius of his home. Soon enough, he began to take more and more cases.

 

Under the name Jim Barnes, Bucky  made a name for himself.

 

Hunting made him feel free.

 

As natural as breathing, yet a brisk challenge that makes his heart race with the thrill of the hunt. There weren't a whole lot of hunters on East Coast, so he found plenty of work.

Hunting is his atonement for the wrongs he committed. And he becomes something else. More human, but it's his unnatural skills he channels  to do good.

 

Bucky is good at killing, and someone has to end the monsters' reign of terror.

 

Killing terrible monsters remind him of his humanity.  

 

No matter how twisted his soul is, at least he's human.  

 

The boogey man he once was, now seeks out things that go bump in the night and ends them before they can hurt anyone ever again. 

 

Barnes trades one warfare for another, and somehow finds pieces of himself that were missing.

 

It's only partially a lie he tells himself.

 

Steve would understand if the roles were reversed.

 

 And he's becoming the best version of himself.

 

Someone who isn't the Bucky Barnes he once was, but definitely a better man than who he was when Steve found him hiding out in a dark, cramped, dingy hole in the wall.

 

And best of all, at the end of a long day of work, he comes home to his best guy.

 

One problem though, Steve has no idea about Barnes' true line of work.

 

And Bucky has no intentions of dragging Steve back into the kind of life he left behind.

 

 

Saving People...Hunting Things...That's what Barnes will do.

 

To be continued.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment down below. I'd love to know what you think.


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